“Berkeley County will become one of the highest recyclers in the country,” said Brian Gilhuly, CEO of RePower South. “A lot of people do not recycle now because it is very costly.”

Right now, Berkeley County residents had two options for recycling: pay $40 a month to a private contractor, or sort their recyclables and drive them to the Berkeley County Convenience Center.

Gilhuly says the facility is expected to open by April and will create 51 new jobs, 30 of which have already been filled.

He said machines will utilize artificial intelligence to differentiate between trash and recyclable materials.

“We’re utilizing artificial intelligence to monitor the material on the belt,” Gilhuly said, pointing to a machine called Max AI. He said the machine can “remove basically or segregate material based on computer’s ability to recognize what it is as it comes across the belt.”

The facility is 100,000 square feet, and can handle up to 700 tons of waste every day.